In our increasingly digital age, penmanship is becoming something of a lost art. Between Common Core standards that dictate teaching time and the universal adoption of smart phones, tablets, and computers over pen and paper, the importance of cursive seems to have gone the way of quills and parchment.

But not in Alabama.

"Lexi's Law," which was signed by Governor Robert Bentley in May and took effect on Monday, requires schools to provide cursive writing instruction by the end of third grade, reports the New York Times.

"It's really an art form that personally identifies you," said Alabama state representative Dickie Drake to the Times. "I think your cursive writing identifies you as much as your physical features do."

The law is named after Drake's granddaughter, and is similar to recent laws recently enacted in Florida and North Caroline to protect cursive writing skills.

Proponents of handwriting like Dr. Laura Dinehart suggest that children who learn penmanship are actually learning how to be better writers.

"If I learn how to produce the letters efficiently, which is the goal of developing 'good handwriting,' then I can become more efficient at writing words, writing sentences, and ultimately, writing in general," she told the Huffington Post last year.

However, detractors from the movement argue the loops and lines of cursive are rarely seen in the "real world," and that class time should be spent learning more practical skills such as math and reading or even forward thinking tech programs like coding.